Windows Phone 7.8 change log posted, heavy on the cosmetics

Microsoft has posted the change log for the Windows Phone 7.10.8858.136, otherwise known as the Windows Phone 7.8 update.

While the hardware of our old Windows Phone 7.5 devices couldn't support a full-blown update to Windows Phone 8, the 7.8 update offers us a few performance tweaks but mostly cosmetic changes. And that's not necessarily a bad thing.

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Windows Phone 7.8 change log posted, heavy on the cosmetics

ive bought two wp7 devices after this whole fiasco i can say it was two too many as in i feel ive made a mistake by buying into wp7 all expensive ass apps, switching emails, having all my stuff in a confusing cloud service. MS doesnt know how to make things seamless and easy like i said i feel like a android user for fuck sakes!!!!!

What phone did you get? Btw I'm a big wp fan, I had a 710 and now I have a 920. However, I'm not blind to the criticisms (for example I totally agree with you about the WP app). Try m.wpcentral.com instead, it especially helps with commenting. Although the app is getting better.

I know on my Radar it's a pain to post anything in most comments sections that use Disqus or livefyre. I usually dread using it and just go to my PC. Sometimes the box won't show up, keyboard is missing or after you type a comment it just won't post. Not to mentions emails. I just use it to read my emails, which is no problem. I use Yahoo mostly. If I send an email it doesn't show up in the sent folder (on phone or PC). Heck the sent folder doesn't even sync. I don't even know if the email was sent or not. Sometimes I test it and send from my phone to another one of my email addresses and, sure enough, it never gets sent most of the time.
Even Skydrive doesn't work as well as it does on my wife's iPhone. It takes so loooooong to refresh and download (wifi or network). I often just switch to browser view. Oh and don't get me started on the browser. Reading a blog site for example. Scroll down click on a story then click "back" to main page and i doesn't keep your spot. Have to scroll all the way back down from the top and search for your spot. And why can't we get a proper Back and Forward Button!!!!! Pushing the back button on the phone isn't the same. I want to go back in the browser, not back to the start page. WP has lot of potential and I was excited about it, but I think this will be my last WP device. It's sad when Nokia is doing more to improve user value than MS.

lets put it this way ive only used one other os and that was webos and i could unlock that phone and update it easily. im not the most technical guy, i try tho. ive been trying to update my arrive which didnt get the update for whatever reason and the tricks you guys have arent working for me. im not a troll ive been here since the begining look as my comments i really like this os thats why i chose it over the others after all but this is rediculous, idk what phones get the update or why my phone cant. why didnt ms give us more feature in the update? and honestly ever since wp8 release my phone feels old and i dont see a real reason to even buy a windows 8 phone when they come out. where are the apps? why are there own services lackluster and on other competing OS's apps are cheaper with better function and not to mention they have all the apps!!! wheres are instagram hell wheres are notifcation center?!! oh yeah thats coming the next update which idk if ill even get lmao now i feel the pain of android users. MS and there products are full of potential that for some reason they just dont wanna unleash they love playing catch up for some reason. and maybe im tired of rolling with a underdog and doesnt wanna be at the top.

Trolling? Or maybe just extremely unfortunate. The seemlessness is one if the things that even haters agree on and while there will always be bugs, ive never experienced any of the issues you described.

whats seamless about it? there services are barely connected and confusing with the re-branding and what not. My Microsoft phone doesn't really sync well with my Microsoft computer or my Microsoft console wtf is that? the cloud services on other platforms are better. this is why developers aren't interested, this is why market share is down. They dont wanna innovate they wanna sit back and copy and refine the competition.

This is your opinion and you are entitled to it, however you seem to very much be in the minority with this opinion and experience. For the record, I find all the Microsoft services totally seamless and fully integrated without any issues on all my Microsoft devices (Phone, PC, Surface, Xbox 360) I do however have some advise for you. Pop the phone back in the box and take it back to the shop. Get a different flavour phone, then go and be negative about that device on another site and stop cluttering up this site with your natural selection. So long and thanks for all the fish.

We don't ask for much, but please, a have a little decorum and civility when you comment. Your trolling and inapropriate language does not fall within decorum or civility. If you can't not be a troll, then try an different website for you needs.

No idea what you are talking about...
My Lumia 800 works very very well. It's smooth, snappy and seamless. The only thing I "hate" is Zune. But I don't mind that much since I hardly ever connect the phone to my pc. Actually just to update it. I don't actually need to sync it. Skydrive takes care of that for me. And very well, I will add. For example, if I take a picture -anywhere in the world- then that picture is on my pc at home (if it's turned on anyway) about 4 seconds after having taken the picture through seamless cloud syncing.
I have no idea what you are doing with your phone or why you find it confusing... What's confusing about skydrive?

oh yeah so its only saves your pics? thats cool so does mine, what about my vidoes and music an such? oh yeah how do i know what photos are being sent to the cloud? what if i take a bad picture or one gets tooken on addicdent? thats right i have to go through that skydrive app which sucks.. and my online albums dont even pop in the pictures app. ive had one note loose notes and create new notebooks for no reason muitple bugs that still havent been fixed and as mentioned with this update they didnt address any issues for old devices just a new start screen. have a new smartphone user use wp7/8 or even one from the other platforms they know how confusing this shit is, the competiton just does it easier and better.

Remember the "vista ready" xp machines? Be glad that they spare you this headache.
All this whining... jezus!
Get over it, it's all fine. Your 7.8 device didn't become unusable by any means with the release of wp8. Not even remotely. You bought it with 7.5 to use it with 7.5, no? Or do you always buy devices thinking "this will be great in a year or 2"?

The worst offense was shipping Lumia 900 at a premium price as a flagship phone, they knew that releasing it in April 2012 (by the time it reached other countries it was June) it was already obsolete. That's screwing your new customers because the phone so hot and fresh was almost worthless at the moment of it's arrival.

That's a false statement... Many 1st gen WP7 mobiles are equal or better specs to some of the current WP8 budget/low-end models. WP8 was designed to scale up (100's of cores) & down too (single core, low memory). It just requires a full flash to the mobile and it's a risky procedure that could brick your phone - no carriers would want to bother testing, supporting or rolling that out when they can just sell you a new phone and go back to counting their money :P

Thank you for the best answer. As a software engineer who has worked with Windows NT since it was a beta test version from Microsoft and several versions of Windows CE, I have told people that WP8 could work on WP7 hardware. It is refreshing to hear that other people understand the same technical concepts and the same business reasons why Microsoft and the carriers will not install WP8 on WP7 hardware.

It's funny because I've seen an old Windows Mobile 6.5 phone running the full blown Windows 8 (might have been Windows RT).
I left Apple because I thought Microsoft would take better care of their customers with regular updates and the freedom to do things the way I wanted to, like I can with a PC. WOW, was that a mistake !!!! Apple never ditched support for a phone that was less than a year old !

:O Ditched customers!?!? They just released 7.8!!!! Apple ditches customers.... Why couldn't the iPhone 4 have gotten siri? SAME THING. Windows Phone 7.8 is proof that your point is completely invalid and actually the complete opposite is true.

Get an Ethernet Cable with the clip that hold it into the coputer taped down or broken off.
Open Task Manager (right click taskbar>Task Manager) Go to the network tab and put the Window all the way tot he right of your desktop. You are going to want to keep an eye on the Network utilization percentage.
Open Zune, go to settings and then click on any of the listed items except for update.
Plug your phone in and let your phoen do the charging chime as well as making sure it shows up in Zune.
Put your hand on your network cable to get ready.
Look at the network utilization, let it stabalize to like 0% or near it.
GET READY! Network Cable pulling hand at the ready, Click Update in Zune look at the network utilization and as soon as it hits a number like x.xx% (mine was around 3.34%) pull the network cable!!

If this fails unplug the phone (just pull it out a bit until it's disconnected), plug in the newtork cable, click on any option except for Update and give it another go.

DON'T FORGET TO PLUG YOUR NETWORK CABLE BACK IN!! I did that on the second update :(
This worked for me pretty quick.

The update automatically resizes your tiles? Doesn't it just replicate your current layout by default? If not, the only difference you might notice is the lack of the little right arrow and a slight enlargement of the tiles.

Exactly a phone would would be required and there's no doubt that the hardware can run windows 8, its only a matter of time before xda releases a wp8 rom for devices with an unlocked bootloader (Gen 1 devices)

I'm on Telstra (LG Optimus 7Q or LG Quantum) and I forced the updates manually after 4 hours of trying the disconnecting method. It took less time to manually install for me. Nothing to lose for firmware, since LG couldn't be bothered checking and updating their firmware.

I love the update. Got it last night, doing the Zune trick, on my 900. Still need to get it done on my 710 and Omnia 7. Was really hoping, they would've put in the screen shot feature, but oh well. At this point I'm dying to see what new devices will be shown at MWC. Will probably hold off on the 920, until then.

Forced the update yesterday with the "disconnect trick". All fine, just one question - does anyone see the new apps promised by Nokia in Marketplace in Nokia collection? I mean the Bluetooth Share, Ringtone Maker and Cinemagraph. For me - not there yet. Anyway, I found two of the apps through links posted here on WPCentral, but the apps cannot be installed - This app is not available for your phone - This might be because your phone software needs to be updated, the app is exclusive to a different mobile provider, or the app is not available in your region.
Anyone facing the same issue? Lumia 800 from slovak Orange but used with US Live ID.

7.8 promissed a lot and felt very short. Microsoft created a lot of expectation around the update and in the end it was like a failed attempt to hold a fart. Making people wait over 6 months for THIS was really a bad move and left many people angry for sure.
Let's hope that leaked slide that mentioned another update after 7.8 becomes true.

I wish some professionals would speak, contacting HTC ATT or Microsoft services and they all tell you to go to the carrier or manufacturer. I can't hack custom roms because my phone HD7S came out after the pre-nodo roms. The cab file trick wont work for 7.8 unless im on tango, and that brings me to my doubt about att since tango and the mango bug fix update before tango haven't been added to the phone.

And where did you get that idea? Deploing CABs is the same thing Zune does to your phone. And you can't skip Tango either way. And both Tango and 7.8 are a chain of multiple updates themselves. They are all incremental. s

cant get this update as all i tried everything on my arrive this cab shit is too confusing every easy uploader never worked fucking pissed beyond believe figured this update would make my phone feel new until they finally release wp8 on sprint fuck htc never buying one again. and fuck MS for making this such a terrible process i feel like an android user. this is the first time ive ever wanted to switch away from wp7. this whole situation is aggrivating.

"fuck MS for making this such a terrible process"
You're blaming MS for your unofficial "back door" and "easy uploader" tools not working? You do realise that if you actually had any patience and tried to install the update when it was released for your phone instead of trying to cheat the system, it would install much more easily... right?

yes iam because they didnt give me the offical update like they promised so i tried to use other ppls tricks and that didnt work for me so now im screwed out of my update because im not a fucking nerd. THIS IS BULLSHIT.

Well, did not have it before the update to wp7.8, do not have it there after as well... I could only change the "website preferences" and "open links from other apps in" , and that's all I can do still...

It disappoints me everytime I think of Windows 7.8. I know half of you guys would probably tell me it's better than android or even apple's updates. But I'm so irrtiated by the Lumia 900 debacle. Like dkp23 mention no screen shot, also no family room, lack of support for some Windows Phone 8 Apps and Games or at least the same kind of updates that is going to WP8. Just a few of many other disappointments limited to the Lumia 900.
How do you try and build such features as Family room when WP 7.8 cant be a part of it?
Again some will be contempt with their Lumia 900 but again it's something to point out that if you're a company trying to build a brand reputation and brand loyalty. Dont discourage early adopters that go and buy your stuff then do something like this. Especially when youre trying to woe over people from more well established platforms.

My gripe is really towards the Lumia 900, I don't think owners of the Lumia 900 should let this slide.

I have a Samsung Focus S which was purchsed in Nov of 2011, and WP8 was released in Nov 12. Imo it would be nice to have WP8 on the Focus S. The Focus S was close to a year old before the introduction of WP8 but then again it does lie within the 18 month that MS agreed to support phones. I wouldnt say so much for the Focus S, Flash and Titan 1. But definitely users of the Titan II and Nokia Lumia 900. Those were high end phones from their respective OEM makers and shouldve been more inclined recieved the WP8 OS. MS shouldve made two exception. The Lumia 900/Titan II were released right before the WP8 announcement. Doesnt that sound disruputable?

@residing, you bought the Lumia 900 in Nov 12, of course youre not going to be inclined to care so much for WP8. You may have purchased the L900 over 920 for budget reason and in Nov 12 you had an option between the two.
When you hype your product phone as the end all be all, end of the beta revolution and claiming this will be the phone of the year. All of a sudden you announce updates nearly a month later and say your phone isnt supported? People who bought the phones in April are going to be peeved.

Lol, wtf? Im pretty sure you buy a phone for WHAT IT HAS. Not for what YOU THINK IT'LL GET later on. Anyone that gets upset cause a company made a better phone than yours right after you bought yours us a fucking idiot. I bought my Lumia 900 and im happy with it. No problems. Phone calls are just fine. Everything is good with it. I don't think I'll upgrade anytime soon.

Breathe, don't breathe, it doesn't bother me.
I just tried forcing it again, after the 3rd try I am now downloading the first update,
Also, why would you hold your breath over someone you dont know getting the update? the phrase "I wouldn't hold your breath" would have made more sense.

All 3 updates done, running 7.8 on my Omnia 7.
Thank you to everyone with helpful comments, running task manager next to the Zune window and pulling the network cable as soon as I saw network activity did the trick.

Don't understand all the hype about an update that brings pracitally.....nothing.
Extremely dissappointed in that MS pretty much completely ignored the wishlist and suggestion box app that they set up.
Just one example-no wifi keep alive? How difficult could that be to add?
So many non-hardwhare features from WP8 that they could have added...but no...just a big F you and thanks for being a ginea pig for WP7....

Dude .. I hated the fact that there is more to the music shortcut on the lock screen! Now that popup appears. Disrupts much! I know I just hit "back", but this is not at all productive. Before, it was perfect! But now when I get a notification, must push back to see it. Before, it was just taking the phone out of his pocket and go! I hear music all the time at work, and talk a lot with my girlfriend by WhatsApp. And that shit really hampers! I hope they will soon launch an upgrade to what was coming, and adding the printscreen.

Updated both my wife's and my unlocked LG Quantums using the cable trick last night. Took a while to get the timing, but was worth it. I love the new start screen and theme colours. I am a little curious as to why Microsoft was running surveys etc. to ask users which WP8 features they would like to have included in WP7.8. The implication was that we could be receiving more that the startscreen changes. I wish there had been more, but I'm loving what we got.

As I posted earlier in this thread I too wondered why MS had that "Suggestion Box" app and took absolutely nothing from it.
I also have a Quantum (first WP I got in March 2011) for spare phone and wondering if unlocked is the same as unbranded. I am going to unbrand it tonight and see if I can get update. That small display probably looks a lot better with bigger tiles!

WP 7.8 looks kind of cheap when you fist see it (the tiles looked big and kind of chunky). After customizing the screen it looks good great, but if that was a first-impression of a windows phone I would not be impressed. Hopefully WP8 devices have a better default layout. Also, does that the huge 'Top Margin' bother anybody else? There's a half-inch between the top of my top tile and hte top of hte screen. In understand that the clock is there and requires some space, but all that space makes the screen look off balance and causes the bottom row of tiles to be cut off. Whine-Whine-Whine, but still super excited about 7.8

"other improvements" = "we limited the audio volume ridiculously so you can't use your phone as a music player anymore, plus we didn't fix a single bug in 7.5". But we gave you at least, so shut up and move on before we stop supporting WP8 as the work on new and shiny WP10 just started.. Sincerely Yours Microsoft

A little disappointing considering how long it took to get the update out and about. I've been playing around with a Nokia Lumia 920 and the 7.8 update on my 900 will be fine. Although there is no screenshot support? Really? It's a little cumbersome when you have to reset a Windows Phone and have to take pictures of the phone you're resetting to get things relaid out and reinstalled. Kind of a pain.... The first gen iphone got screenshot support with ios 2. This is a tad disappointing. I want to see if the 7.8 update brings some refinements from Windows Phone 8, but I'm guessing no since it's purely just imagery than actual code change.

The audio playback controls pops up everytime I unlock the phone while playing music.
It's gigantic, and blocks 1/4 of the screen for a few seconds. I with they'd just put the buttons on the wallpaper like they used to.

I must say I wasn't expecting anything huge but I admit that I expected some new features like the SMS character encoding, so far Windows Phone 8 is not a huge improvement to make me switch and I'm also waiting the Galaxy 4 and the Xperia Z and see how good they are. I still have 3-5 months to decide if stay with WP8 or switch to Android. So far happy with WP7.8 but not amazed.

I'm really disappointed with Windows Phone. I have a Samsung Focus v1.3 and I expected more.
Microsoft is focusing basically with the looks of the OS. What about the things that really matters, like sync issues, bing search and maps are awful except for US, notification center, volume control, printscreen, security protocols support and a lot of other stuff that we WP users actually need?
Well, I'm getting a Galaxy S3 ou Note 2.. I honestly believe that Windows Phone has been a terrible mistake by MS, so far..

Just updated my ZTE Tania (using the CAB method since the official support will probably never come) from Tango to 7.8 and only took me 20 minutes. Beside the features list above, I have noticed a significant performance speed level-up. App starts faster, action take less time. For the price of my phone, I'm fairly happy with this update but, It's not WP8, maybe 1/2 of it.

Agreed. Overall, every actions take less time. This alone makes the update quite important. Furthermore, I also get XBox Live services. Previously, in my region, XBox Live isn't available. And that bluetooth share app from Nokia really usefull on sending images to my Lumia 710 for wallpaper usage (yes, I'm not using bing wallpapers ^^a). I won't send music files to my device though. It won't be organized into artist->album classification, which makes it always unknown artist and unknown album.

Updated my Samsung Focus (ATT) last night, and now I plan on skipping on the Lumia 920. Feels like a brand new phone. This wasn't mentioned by Microsoft, but they also updated the music tile so you see this awesome animation (same one found in WP8) while music plays. The text/artist animation continues even when the music is paused. They also updated the tiles/animations for office, group pins, and games. Same animation found in WP8. Very satisfied with this update.

No support for Hindi/Indian language again. I bought this lumia 900 out of love for Nokia. But without support for my native languages, I will definitely go back go the IPhone again. Fancy live tiles don't matter that much when your phone doesn't do some basic things, such as web browsing in a language used by a billion people. Not to mention the lack of support for flash, and basic apps for banking and on demand media. To hell with Microsoft for ruining Nokia's chances of revival.

So i understand the whole excuse of "the new kernel" and what not , but as long as i remember , MSFT was a SOFTWARE company, shouldn't they be able to , idk, make software work?

It's 2013 and WP7.x still has no basic features like screenshot function, or even universal search, features that can't be too hardware dependent considering the older iphone 3gs I mean , doesn't MSFT have the resources or the money to have engineers work ? Just a tad bit harder perhaps?.

I agree...I ran back to android and downloaded launcher 8 lol I get the tiles (some live but far from Microsoft quality) and now I get the apps I want, screenshots, stay alive wi-fi and google now is nice. But I still have my Lumia 710...it's nice

I too agree. When 2013 started I tried android sony xperia SL and I love all the functionalities lacking from windows phone. I still have my lumia 800 though but not coming back to windows phone anytime soon. MSFT is just stupid for doing this to early adopters. 7 months from start of announcement of win 7.8 and we only get live tiles resize? screenshot and orientation lock still missing. they were playing us all along. 7MONTHS of waiting for resizable tiles. I hate MSFT, i still love Nokia though but never buying their hardware on Win phone.

I too agree. When 2013 started I tried android sony xperia SL and I love all the functionalities lacking from windows phone. I still have my lumia 800 though but not coming back to windows phone anytime soon. MSFT is just stupid for doing this to early adopters. 7 months from start of announcement of win 7.8 and we only get live tiles resize? screenshot and orientation lock still missing. they were playing us all along. 7MONTHS of waiting for resizable tiles. I hate MSFT, i still love Nokia though but never buying their hardware on Win phone.

I too agree. When 2013 started I tried android sony xperia SL and I love all the functionalities lacking from windows phone. I still have my lumia 800 though but not coming back to windows phone anytime soon. MSFT is just stupid for doing this to early adopters. 7 months from start of announcement of win 7.8 and we only get live tiles resize? screenshot and orientation lock still missing. they were playing us all along. 7MONTHS of waiting for resizable tiles. I hate MSFT, i still love Nokia though but never buying their hardware on Win phone.

Quite pleased with the updates. And now, finally, without cheating region information, I can play XBox Live games. This really great. I thought I need to wait longer to get XBox Live on my Lumia 710. But now ... Yay! :D